Who Will Win Series 71? (Spoilers Included)

[Jordan F]

Well, it's that time. The top 8 winners of this series face off for the chance to be Series 71 Champion. Match-ups are as follows:

December 10th: #1 Seed Dan McColm vs #8 Seed Paul Worsley
December 11th: #2 Seed Antoinette Ryan vs #7 Seed David Stanford
December 15th: #3 Seed Tricia Pay vs #6 Seed Laurence Killen
December 16th: #4 Seed Mark Davies vs #5 Seed George Ford
December 17th: Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 4
December 18th: Winner of Game 2 vs Winner of Game 3
December 19th: Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6

This should be a very strong finals. Lots of octochamps, all with pretty similar totals. Combined with a 7 timer, and a 6 timer with some family history, should be a lot of fun. So who wins? I have to stick with Dan, just based on past performance. Knowing how strong the field is though, one strong game from anyone could tip it. Some fun match-ups and potential match-ups too, including a potential all female semi-final, which I've never seen in my time of watching the show. Excited to see how it pans out.

[Fred Mumford]

The smart money has to be on Dan, but other than that there is so little to choose between 6 out of the 7 others.

Will be cheering loudest for Antoinette and George, and I always tend to prefer the players who haven't been on before, but I think it will be very entertaining whatever happens.

[Johnny Canuck]

Spread predictions:
QF1, QF2, QF3 - top three seeds, each by 30+ points
QF4 - George by 0-10 points (possibly crucial)
SF1 - Dan by 20-30 points
SF2 - Antoinette by 10-20 points (possibly crucial)
GF - Dan by 20 points

[Gavin Chipper]

I know some of you will be cheering for someone not to win. What a disgrace.

[Fred Mumford]

I know some of you will be cheering for someone not to win. What a disgrace.

Cheering for someone not to win ultimately ensures 7 times as much happiness as cheering for someone to win. Sounds like a great idea, now you mention it.

[Dan McColm]

I don't think any of those will win Series 70

[Jordan F]

Dan: There was a last minute reversal that determined what Mark Murray won was a continuation of Series 69, due to budget cuts. In fact, the thread title is the typo, not the poll title.

[Mark Murray]

Haha Jordan..nice save! Exciting finals.With my heart, I would like to see Antoinette win as would be nice to have a rep of Ireland run and a female win it but with my head, I think Dan has it in the bag. Saying that, really like George, Mark, and think Tricia had unfair comments throughout so any of those too

[Mark Murray]

Oh yeah and of course Worsley senior!

[Fred Mumford]

Rumour has it David Stanford has been spending 20 hours a day on Touchy Words so I now make him favourite.

[George Pryn]

Tricia was so underrated during her run, she's probably the person with the highest chance of taking down the obvious favourite for the crown Dan. Turned out to be a really strong series, 3 really strong apterites, some random called George Ford, 3 great non-apterite players (though we seem to have converted laurence) and the unpredictable David Stanford could surely do well too... Anything could happen...

my predictions (I wrote these down before recording the finals, so dont expect any hints)

Bracket 1
Dan to win vs paul
Mark to win vs me
Dan to win vs mark

Bracket 2
Tricia to win vs laurence
Antoinette to win vs david
Tricia to win va antoinette on a crucial

Final
Very close game, but I think Dan has the edge, would be nice for it to be a crucial too.

[Mark Murray]

Think you are being modest George...wouldn't like to call your game in particular !

[Neil Bellers]

Ages since I have posted here, so hello again everyone.
Really looking forward to such a strong line-up for the finals;
I have cast my vote now.
Still cannot see the attraction however of the changeover in DC for the laptop lookup.
Is this to save time in the live recording and/or to get better guaranteed suggestions?.
Even I thought 'flusher' for a 7 a couple of days ago, when that programme was aired
and then reading the recap, excellent as usual, that and 2 other words are 'DC beaters'.
What a refresher as well to see AlliMac back as a guest:
there should be an online vote so that some of the others are excluded in future;
recently quite poor really....no names.
I have tried watching 8ootcdcd but that is....not a good idea.
Otherwise, cheers to all online and in the studio.
Are there ever any name-checks to those in the audience who solve the conundrum at the end?
Neil B.

[Martin Long]

I think the top three seeds and George will make the finals. Antoinette and Dan will win comfortably in their quarter finals, George will win by 20 points with his numbering skills making the difference and Tricia will beat Laurence (but I think this game will be closer than people think, perhaps going to a crucial conundrum). Dan and Antoinette will make the final with Dan winning.

[Keith Bennett]

December 10th: #1 Seed Dan McColm vs #8 Seed Paul Worsley
December 11th: #2 Seed Antoinette Ryan vs #7 Seed David Stanford
December 15th: #3 Seed Tricia Pay vs #6 Seed Laurence Killen
December 16th: #4 Seed Mark Davies vs #5 Seed George Ford
December 17th: Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 4
December 18th: Winner of Game 2 vs Winner of Game 3
December 19th: Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6

So what is happening on Friday 12th? Radio Times has Countdown on at 3.30. Is that a special?

Dan is obviously the favourite, but he puts so much pressure on himself. There have been a couple of No 1 seeds in recent times who did that and blew it. Mark has an excellent temperament but I reckon George beats him on numbers. So for me it's Dan or George v Antoinette (who I also believe will outnumber Tricia) in the final. Would love to see Antoinette win it but if I'm right I think it will be like Heather's final with the first semi-finalist having the massive advantage of the longer rest.

Conclusion? Dan, on sheer all round ability, but with a bit of a wobble on the way.

[Rhys Benjamin]

In Series 63 and Series 64, I did basic maths to attempt to find the winner and predict the finals. Series 63 was dead on, I got the 3rd quarter final of Series 64 wrong, but everything else was good.

Using the same method:

Winner: Dan McColm
Runner Up: Tricia Pay
Semi Finalists: George Ford, Antoinette Ryan
Quarter Finalists: Paul Worsley, Mark Davies, Laurence Killen, David Stanford.

Dan has achieved a 92% max score, he should win this series easily.

[James Laverty]

So what is happening on Friday 12th? Radio Times has Countdown on at 3.30. Is that a special?

Indeed it is. I think James R said it was between Bobby Johnson and Bobby Banerjee

[James Robinson]

So what is happening on Friday 12th? Radio Times has Countdown on at 3.30. Is that a special?

Indeed it is. I think James R said it was between Bobby Johnson and Bobby Banerjee

Correctamundo, nice that people take time to read things on occasion.

[Fred Mumford]

Difficult to register a vote for Paul Worsley given his QF opponent, but it's a bit surprising to note that Paul got as many maxes in 7 games as Antoinette did in 8.

I just can't see Antoinette beating Tricia if they were to meet, much as I would like to see it happen.

[George Pryn]

tricky one because seeds 2-6 (and 8) are all pretty similar

#seed/% score/avg of lowest 2/avg of highest 2/consistency
#1 92/80/98/0.4 Dan
#2 79/70/88/0.4 Antoinette
#3 84/78/92/0.6 Tricia
#4 82/72/91/0.4 Mark
#5 84/79/89/0.8 George
#6 78/64/93/0.3 Laurence
#7 64/58/68/0.8 David
#8 74/66/83/0.5 Paul

[Rhys Benjamin]

Well... that's put the cat amongst the pigeons! I would not be able to call the Laurence vs Antoinette semi final.